This invention relates generally to retail sales. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods to facilitate payment for shipped goods.
In recent years, the internet has provided a new venue for a variety of commercial transactions that is, in many respects, more convenient for consumers than traditional venues. It is widely expected that the availability of the internet for commercial transactions will ultimately prove revolutionary. Already, a large number of companies that sell goods in traditional ways, through retail outlet shops and through catalogues, have also made their products available for sale over the internet. In addition, a significant number of companies have developed systems for selling goods exclusively over the internet, generally expecting that such a paradigm will prove more profitable than traditional retail sales because of reduced overhead costs and the capacity for automation.
Currently, retail transactions for goods executed over the internet proceed in essentially the same fashion regardless of whether the seller also supports traditional sales venues. A customer who visits the seller's worldwide web site makes a selection after viewing some description of available goods, provides shipping information, and authorizes the charges to be made against a valid credit card. The seller charges the credit-card issuer and ships the goods to the customer. There may be variations on such a process, including providing insurance for the goods, gift wrapping the goods, shipping them to third parties, etc., but the basic transaction relies on having the customer provide a valid credit account number to the seller.
One weakness in such a process is the need for the customer to provide the valid credit account number. Many customers are reluctant to provide such information because of the perceived danger that the information may be used fraudulently; this concern is generally greater to such customers for internet transactions since they believe the risk of interception of the information may be greater than in other venues. Some efforts have been made to provide alternatives for such customers, but those alternatives tend either to be inconvenient or not to be readily acceptable to sellers. A similar barrier inhibiting transactions is sometimes reflected by reluctance on the part of sellers when the transactions are international. This reluctance arises from the less well developed integration of foreign credit systems so that sellers face increased uncertainty that they will recover funds when the shipments are made internationally.
In addition to these situations, there are many business that simply do not accept credit cards at all. Sometimes such policies are adopted because of costs charged by credit-card suppliers to the businesses. Regardless of the motivation for refusing to accept credit cards, there is no simple way for remote transactions to be completed with such business even if the goods are not offered over the internet.
There is accordingly a need in the art for methods and systems that facilitate payment for shipped goods by providing increased security both to the customer and to the seller.